THE GOD EATER

His voice was full of pride as he said, ”After a while, i didn’t need to do anything. The process was unstoppable and becoming a Dao Lord was certain for me.”

But then he shook his head, he said, ”As good as this sounds, there are some things that you have to pay attention to if you intend to follow this plan. The most important thing to figure out is the limit and restriction mechanism.”

”This kind of avalanche mechanism can run away from you. The output can become so high that it becomes too much for you to contain, and you die.”

”So you have to know the limit you can handle beforehand, and you need to have a method to restrict the splitting before it goes out of control. The method used is to dampen the splitting with...”

Every single step was explained judiciously as if he was recounting exactly how he had advanced to rank 10 back then. His effort bore fruit as Loki was enlightened.

Loki had only asked the question to make sure that Heavenly Eye hadn’t deceived him in the previous time loop. Now, thanks to Golden Sun, not only was he able to confirm that he wasn’t deceived, but he also learned more about how to advance.

The price was that the brightness of Golden Sun slowly dimmed during the explanation. The fallen Dao Lord was becoming weaker and weaker as if he was aging.

Neither party was remorseful about this unfortunate development in Golden Sun. Just like Golden Sun himself thought that it was worth it, Loki was of the opinion that the cost was worth it.

As he listened to Golden Sun’s explanations, Loki thought inwardly, ’It seems to be exactly as I thought. It is a nuclear fission reaction.’

After the explanation, Golden Sun asked hopefully, ”Is that all?”

Loki didn’t speak. He just smiled meaningfully.

So Golden Sun said, ”What’s next?”

”I want to know how Dao Lords can have more than one pathway. I also want to know why they like stealing pathways. Why can’t they just create new Supreme Metacs on their own?”

”I mean, if a rank 8 cultivator can create a Supreme Metac, sure, the Dao Lord, a rank 10 being, who provided the resources the rank 8 cultivator used, should be able to create more Supreme Metacs? The quality should be higher too. After all, they are stronger and have more resources.”

Instead of answering his question, Golden Sun smiled and said, ”When you were a mortal, how many languages did you know how to speak and write?”

Without thinking, Loki said, ”One. But that’s only because I didn’t try to learn more languages.”

Nodding, Golden Sun said, ”Let’s say you tried to learn more languages. How many languages can you master?”

”And remember, you’re a mortal doing this. You have limited intelligence, limited resources, and limited time. You have to do other things such as eating, defecation, going to work, and generally keeping yourself alive.”

This time, Loki had to think deeply before he could answer the question.

Two seconds later, he said, ”Between 3 and 6 languages. It depends on how dedicated I am to the task and how many resources I have to do it.”

Golden Sun bobbed his spherical body again in a nod. Then he asked, saying, ”Do you see where I am going with this?”

In response, Loki said, ”You mean that creating more pathways is as difficult as learning languages. I also see that you are trying to reduce your mental expenditure by leading me to the answer instead of explaining it yourself.”

Rolling his nonexistent eyes, Golden Sun said, ”Dao Lords can have more than one pathway. Their limit is based on the qualifications they use to advance when they become Dao Lords. Some Dao Lords can only withstand 3 pathways, while some can accept up to 9 pathways.”

”But that is only potential. It is like how babies can become anything, but most of their achievements are mediocre, with only a few babies being extraordinary.”

”Dao Lords still need a Supreme Metac and some other resources to assimilate more pathways. Both of these requirements are difficult to meet. But they are difficult in their own ways.”

His figure dimmed again, but Golden Sun ignored this development and continued with his explanation.

”For the Supreme Metacs, most Dao Lords have exhausted their potential when they advance. They can’t make more Supreme Metacs because each pathway is not only a different language. Each pathway is also a different way of looking at the world and a different way of thinking. It is not just something they can change anyhow.”

”The Supreme Metac is a culmination of the life experience, taste, and style of a person. If I could liken it to a mortal endeavor, I would say it is the distillation of the skill of an artisan. Just like artists have different styles, each person has different affinities for the Dao.”

”And just like most artists have only one style, most Dao Lords can only produce one Supreme Metac. Some artists are talented and can have multiple styles for the same kind of art, but not everyone is so lucky. Most people aren’t even good enough to have a style that they can distill into a Supreme Metac, much less have more than one style.”

Then he pointed at the monkey in Loki’s grasp and said, ”Take Black Chains for example; he liked control. All of his life, he wanted to be in control of everything and everyone around him. So he created the Enslavement Supreme Metac.”

”Clearly, he had an affinity for the Enslavement Pathway. To strengthen this affinity, he expanded his control into the mind. After all, if he can control the mind, he will be able to easily enslave people, animals, and plants. That’s how the Mind Hunter Pathway came to be.”

”And if you notice, every disciple that came after him and used these two pathways managed to create something with an affinity for control.”